The Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2016 promises a lot that you can take away in terms of the experience of contemporary art, but you’ll also need a more tangible takeaway, as a souvenir of your trip to Kochi. Enter The Nicobar Edit, one of our patrons, who’ll be opening a pop-up shop at David Hall, Fort Kochi, for a two-month period from December 12.
The Nicobar Edit is a Mumbai-based design studio, one that, in an age where brick-and-mortar stores are rapidly going out of fashion, lays emphasis on the physical space as a sensory experience for its customers. The pop-up shop, 10 yards in length and 4 in breadth, is spread under a white tent with tropical fronds, creating a very holistic experience where the mood is one of relaxation and wanderlust. The interior is pieced together like a series of vignettes, and corners are punctuated with products designed for your home and wardrobe, inviting you to linger as long as you like.
Firm in its belief that good design is for everyone, The Nicobar Edit is sure to find itself at home during the Kochi Biennale, with its rich presence of art and culture, the very ethos upon which the design studio has built its brand.
A mix of textures, lighting, and moods, The Nicobar Edit’s third stop is Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2016.

The Kochi Biennale Foundation was founded on the principle that art should be disseminated to society, and after two successful editions of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale and other auxiliary programmes, it continues to be the principle on which our activities are based.
As the foundation’s activities continue to expand in scope and ambition, we cannot afford not to acknowledge the support that has poured in over these years. Over the past few months towards the run-up to the third edition of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, corporate firms like the LuLu Group, South Indian Bank and Asian Paints have made significant financial contributions to the foundation’s activities. We are grateful to each one of them for coming forward to support such an initiative as this.

Accreditation for media persons is open for the Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2016; for more details, follow the link below.http://registration.kochimuzirisbiennale.org/
This is only for journalists who want to cover the Biennale. Everyone else may buy the ticket at the counters. In the coming days we will also publish a list of other places where tickets may be procured.

From being a platform showcasing the work of eminent and emerging artists from around the world, the Kochi Biennale Foundation has launched another platform, one that seeks to mould the coming generation of artists. We are proud to launch the Art By Children (ABC) programme, a joint initiative with leading science and technology company Merck Group as our outreach partner. The ABC programme was inaugurated at the Government Higher Secondary School, Puthenthode on Monday, November 21. The ABC programme seeks to reach out to 100 schools in the state and let children give wings to their artistic skills.

Kochi-Muziris Biennale receives a new patron, this time from Silicon Valley! Venture capitalist Asha Jadeja, who’d funded a number of startups and NGOs across the world through the Motwani Jadeja Family Foundation, has joined the list of our Platinum Patrons. Ms. Jadeja has been instrumental in backing over a hundred startups and initiatives like the Maker Movement in Africa. Ms Jadeja came over to the Biennale office in person and handed over a cheque to the foundation.

With only two weeks to go until the opening of KMB 2016, a new venue was added to the 11 venues chosen for the event, bringing the count to 12. Kottapuram Fort, part of the Kerala Tourism Department’s Tourism Heritage Project, was chosen as venue number 12. A team including curator Sudarshan Shetty, co-founder Bose Krishnamachari and Sharmistha Mohanty, one of the participating artists for the coming Biennale paid a visit to the site.

The Kochi Biennale Foundation has a new CEO – Manju Sara Rajan. Manju’s appointment was made a few weeks ahead of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale 2016, after it was approved by the board of trustees. As CEO, Manju will oversee the creative, financial and administrative management of the activities under the organisation. Manju’s elevation to the post was announced at a small function at the head office.

]]>10314Biennale Whitehttp://kochimuzirisbiennale.org/9972-2/
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In September during a meeting with Asian Paints in Mumbai, the paint giant’s innovations marketing manager had an idea to create a signature colour that we could use on KMB sites in Kochi. One long meeting later, we had the ‘Biennale White’, a pure white with no undertones. It is from the Asian Paints colour spectra and the white colour family, and it has now made its way on to the walls of every Biennale site.
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The project is a collaboration between the Kochi Biennale Foundation, Maraya Art Centre, Sharjah and independent curator Mo Reda. The exchange builds on the historical forms of traffic between the Kerala and West Asia while exploring the possibilities of developing new forms of exchange in the regions based on contemporary art and culture.

As part of the project, Emirati artists Mohammed Ahmed Ibrahim and Mohammed Kazem are in residence at Pepper House in Fort Kochi. Their works will be shown at the Pepper House Residency Exhibition, which will run parallel to the 2016 Kochi-Muziris Biennale.

In early 2017, two Indian artists will be selected to travel to Sharjah to work in residence at Maraya Art Centre. The works of all four artists in the project will be exhibited at a Trans-Indian Ocean Artists Exchange Exhibition to be curated by Mo Reda.

Mohammed Ahmed Ibrahim is a pioneering Emirati artist. Born in Khorfakkan, UAE, his work has been exhibited across the world, including in Sharjah, Venice, Bonn, Havana, Cairo and Moscow.

Mohammed Kazem’s practice includes various media, including painting, video and installation. His work has been shown in Venice, Singapore, Dubai, and Beijing. Kazem was also co-curator of the 2007 Sharjah Biennial.

Mo Reda is a Dutch artist and curator. Shows he has curated include ‘Alwan 338’ (2012) in Bahrain, ‘Per/Form’ (2014) in Kuwait, and a collaterial project at the Jogja Biennale (2015).

Graphic artist, designer, activist and social documentarian, Orijit Sen studied at the National Institute of Design Ahmedabad, where he was exposed to the world of graphic novels, in particular books by Art Spiegelman and Robert Crumb. His first publication, River of Stories (1994), is considered the first graphic novel in India. The book tells the story of the environmental, social and political issues surrounding the construction of the controversial Narmada dam. Sen’s interest also lies in engaging with local communities and documenting their oral histories.